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The ones that are still in AT&T's ownership also have fiber co-sited at them, usually on former coax routes, like this former main station between Colorado spri

by Aloha 5y ago

The ones that are still in AT&T's ownership also have fiber co-sited at them, usually on former coax routes, like this former main station between Colorado springs and Amarillo. https://www.google.com/maps/place/37°55'27.3%22N+102°36'36.5%22W/@37.9242503,-102.6101279,701m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d37.9242503!4d-102.6101279 https://www.google.com/maps/place/37°55'27.3%22N+102°36'36.5... There is still active microwave, but its usually in the ownership of the RBOC/IOC not a long distance carrier, and is used to link the end office to the rest of the PSTN. Microwave is also used extensively to link cell sites to other cell sites, so you need to install less fiber.

peterangular 5y ago
Huh - looked at that location on street view and it is so weird seeing a modern AT&T logo on a Long Lines site building! Microwave backhaul fascinates me... I think the most interesting example of it that blows my mind is the private backhauls that are going up between major financial hubs in the US like Chicago <-> New York. Since latency is a huge deal for a lot of these HFT traders some intense stuff gets engineered: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/private-microwave-networks-financial-hft/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/priva... Specific quote I'm referencing: > The researchers then used the FCC and other records to deduce that, at the time of their 2013 study, there were 15 (!) networks licensed to operate microwave links between the two cities. Freakin' wild!
- Aloha 5y ago
  Most of the non-microwave only sites were converted to fiber, so they're out there quietly humming in the night, soldiering on, just passing traffic, their facilities which were designed to be manned 24/7, might see an engineer once a week, or even once a month. I've often dreamed about building a private national microwave network to sell capacity on. They're not expensive to build or operate with modern hardware, which doesnt need much power or servicing. Wanna see something truly wild? https://archive.org/details/bstj56-10-1829 https://archive.org/details/bstj56-10-1829 Buried waveguide! a path not taken, as fast as microwave, with more controlled path characteristics. Had fiber not worked out to be practical, this would have been the replacement for the L-5 Coax network, as fiber proved to be.
  - peterangular 5y ago
    Wow - and they actually had a field test that worked...! I have such a huge respect for the engineers that worked on these systems - it feels like some wild west sorta stuff.
    - Aloha 5y ago
      It supported digital too, much like the last generation of microwave gear did.

by Aloha 5y ago

peterangular 5y ago

Huh - looked at that location on street view and it is so weird seeing a modern AT&T logo on a Long Lines site building! Microwave backhaul fascinates me... I think the most interesting example of it that blows my mind is the private backhauls that are going up between major financial hubs in the US like Chicago <-> New York. Since latency is a huge deal for a lot of these HFT traders some intense stuff gets engineered: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/private-microwave-networks-financial-hft/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/priva... Specific quote I'm referencing: > The researchers then used the FCC and other records to deduce that, at the time of their 2013 study, there were 15 (!) networks licensed to operate microwave links between the two cities. Freakin' wild!

Aloha 5y ago
Most of the non-microwave only sites were converted to fiber, so they're out there quietly humming in the night, soldiering on, just passing traffic, their facilities which were designed to be manned 24/7, might see an engineer once a week, or even once a month. I've often dreamed about building a private national microwave network to sell capacity on. They're not expensive to build or operate with modern hardware, which doesnt need much power or servicing. Wanna see something truly wild? https://archive.org/details/bstj56-10-1829 https://archive.org/details/bstj56-10-1829 Buried waveguide! a path not taken, as fast as microwave, with more controlled path characteristics. Had fiber not worked out to be practical, this would have been the replacement for the L-5 Coax network, as fiber proved to be.
- peterangular 5y ago
  Wow - and they actually had a field test that worked...! I have such a huge respect for the engineers that worked on these systems - it feels like some wild west sorta stuff.
  - Aloha 5y ago
    It supported digital too, much like the last generation of microwave gear did.